In the third place a beginning may be that out of which a thing comes, the underlying matter from which things are formed. This, however, is the view of those who hold matter itself to be uncreated, a view which we believers cannot share, since we believe God to have made the things that are out of the things which are not, as the p. 307mother of the seven martyrs in the Maccabees teaches, 4538
and as the angel of repentance in the Shepherd inculcated. 4539